The gluten in wheat is what binds doughs beautifully; it provides the sticky cohesion that bakers and chefs love so well.

In order to achieve the same effect with gluten free flours, resourceful gluten free bakers typically rely upon a well known food thickening agent called xanthan gum. Adding this substance to batters and doughs helps create gluten free baked goods and treats with the perfect level of viscosity. They hold together with style.

So, what's the catch?

It might not be time yet to bust out the theme music from the movie "Jaws"... but as it turns out, there is a lot you may not know about the xanthan gum in your cupboard or refrigerator.

Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide made from the coat of a tiny microorganism called Xanthomonas campestris. Companies like Bob's Red Mill make it by fermenting glucose, sucrose or lactose with this bacterium, and then use isopropyl alcohol to "precipitate" it from the growth medium. It is later dried and ground into a powder.

These companies use the xanthan gum powder in a wide variety of products. It works as a thickener or stabilizer for a diverse range of products and needs ranging from ice cream to cosmetics to thickening mud for drilling. Xanthan significantly increases the viscosity of liquids and in most foods it is used at a concentration of .5%.

Your xanthan gum has the potential in itself to trigger allergic responses if you happen to be sensitive to its growth mediums.

Do you know what the growth mediums for xanthan gum ARE? Do you?

Because until today, I didn't.

The growth mediums are: CORN, DAIRY, WHEAT, SOY

Yes, that xanthan gum you're using in your gluten free baking may actually have been derived from WHEAT.

In fact, it probably is!

I called Bob's Red Mill today and spoke with a representative, because I wanted to make sure that the xanthan gum I use for my gluten free baking was not grown from a soy medium. I have an allergy to soy that I try to be really respectful of, and I strictly avoid all possible exposure to soy.

Imagine my shock to hear straight from the representative,

"Oh no, you have nothing to worry about. We don't use soy. Our xanthan gum is created using wheat starch."

Dumbfounded, I responded - "But, it's supposed to be gluten free! It says so right here on the package."

"Oh, by the time the bacteria has done its work there are zero wheat proteins remaining," he assured me. "We grow it from wheat starch but it is gluten free by the time it gets to you."

"Bob's Red Mill Products Labeled Gluten Free are batch tested in our quality control laboratory. We use an ELISA Gluten Assay test to determine if a product is gluten free." (Emphasis added.)

Which means, in sum, that Bob's Red Mill is deciding for itself if its products are actually gluten free. There is no independent lab involved, no third party testing.

Here is a quote from AllAllergy.Netwhich sums up my concerns as a gluten free baker:

"In the U.S. there are 2 major suppliers of xanthan gum. One uses soy as the fermentation medium while the other uses wheat. Residual wheat gluten has been detected on the xanthan gum made on the wheat substrate."

If residual gluten has been detected in even *some* batches xanthan gum grown from the wheat starch medium, what guarantee is there that ALL packages of xanthan gum from any company - including Bob's Red Mill - are truly gluten-free? How often are they actually batch testing? Do they test every week? Every month? Once a year?

More importantly... can folks with a heightened sensitivity to gluten REALLY rest assured that they will not have an allergic response to the xanthan gum that they are baking with?

If you suffer from a known allergy to gluten, corn, dairy or soy I highly recommend calling the manufacturer of the xanthan gum product you like to use in your baking to find out exactly what medium they are growing it from.

You might be shocked to discover, as I was, that your friendly little package of xanthan gum is actually grown from a product to which you are highly sensitive... and that the company itself is doing its own ELISA testing without an external quality control.

Have you tried using Almond Flour? It's great for baking. I also discovered it through ElanasPantry.com. She has a great gluten free book. I am also a Blood Type O and can use most of her recipes with some tweaking. She lists which brands work best for baking under her ingredient list. I get my blanched almond flour in 5lb bags at http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/. Have you taken the secretor test from the blood type diet website? I have been thinking about it since it is suppose to fine tune the diet according to his later book, Live Right 4 your type. It's nice to find your blog.

Thank you for this, we have used xanthan gum in our baking at times, on the understanding it was gluten free. However a news letter this morning from Dr Mercola started some started the alarm bells ringing. I will leave it in the shop from now on. Thanks Bill

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Important Disclaimer

I believe enthusiastically in the benefits of a gluten free diet but would like to clearly state that I am not a doctor. I do not have the ability to diagnose or treat gluten intolerance, Celiac disease or any other form of food allergy. My recipes and original content should not be interpreted as medical advice, and I am in no way qualified as a medical authority.

I'm just a wife and mother working hard to master gluten free cooking, sharing my experiences and recipes along the way. I hope you will enjoy them!